The Project Officer took part on May 6 and 11 respectively in Burkina and Niger to follow up meetings to discuss the standard template for the drafting of the consultants reports on the identification of national development priorities in the Mékrou basin.
A GWP delegation including the Coordinator, the Project manager and by the chair met with the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) Executive Secretary and some her colleagues on May 10, 2016. The discussions focused on how to start the implementation of the framework agreement for the promotion of political dialogue in the Mékrou tranboundary river basin signed in December 2015 by the three countries. To start with it was sugggested that the issue be included in the agenda of the next NBA council of ministers.
Nine (9) countries across Africa among which four (4) are from West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria) met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 18-19 May to take a step further on the national consultations carried out in 2015 that led-up to the UN Committee on Food Security’s (UN CFS) 42nd session.
A training workshop was held on effective regulation targeted at Catchment officers due to their future roles in the catchment regulations, facilitation of the development of Catchment Management Plans (CMPs) and production of Water Charters to be signed by riparian State Governments within the hydrological area. The training was held on 2nd and 3rd February 2016.
The Regional Project Officer was part of the GWPWA team that participated in the GWP Regional Days. She took part on May 11, 2016 at the IDMP session that brought togetjer the Global progarmme Manager and the regional programmes managers of Eastern Africa and Central and Eastern Europe to discuss the challenges, difficulties and especially the added value of IDMP in each region.
The Chair, Regional Coordinator, the IDMP project officer and Communications Manager of GWP West Africa took part in to the GWP Regional Days meetings in Stockholm from 8 to 13 May 2016.
« Alliance Fas’Eau » is the name of the new alliance officially launched on 17 May 2016 in Ouagadougou by a group of fourteen (14) Civil Society organisation under the leadership of IRC Burkina.
IUCN-PACO organized from May 18 to 21, 2016 in Leo, Burkina Faso, in collaboration with the Volta Bassin Authority (VBA), and GWP / WA a workshop to develop the outline of the concept note on the conservation and restoring of conserving and restoring ecosystem functioning in the Volta basin.
As part of the implementation of the GWP Gender Strategy, a workshop for 24 rural women on the installation and maintenance of a rainwater harvesting system as an alternative to water scarcity recently took place in Honduras. Participants included women who had previous experience in water management and who are leaders in their communities, NGOs, or work in a municipality.
On July 1, 2016, Dr. Oyun Sanjaasuren assumes the role of new Chair of the Global Water Partnership (GWP): "I think those who set up GWP 20 years ago - the people, organisations, governments - were very visionary and had good foresight. It is only more recently that water and water governance gained wider understanding and support”. Dr. Oyun says that now is a crucial time for GWP to influence the global development agenda.